I asked the folks on the excellent Style 1900 Yahoo group to talk about their own kitchen remodel projects, and got some excellent responses; I'll be posting them throughout the coming week.

Brad Iwafuchi writes about the kitchen remodel in his 1922 California bungalow, which he and his wife are right in the middle of:

We were limited with funds, so it is a minor retrofit. The kitchen is 12' x 12' and includes the small dining table. The counter area is L shape with the Fridge on an opposite wall.

We replaced out the vinyl flooring. It was an ugly black and grey 12" pattern. We purchased a Congoleum Xclusive 5 star vinyl that has a pattern close to a green Dard Hunter rose. I guess we lucked out. I just checked their website and it is no longer for sale. It is an subdue sand base color and stem and "flower."

The '70s cathedral-style doors and cabinets were still in good shape so we sanded them down and restained them a Mission oak color.

We replace the handles with bronze Mission kitchen door knobs and pulls purchased from EXPO [Editor's note - Expo is Home Depot's design superstore wing].

We replaced the 70s faux vinyl butcher block counter with a Corian countertop (Burnt Amber) and a Franke composite granite sink. (White) We got a slightly used KitchenAid smoothtop cooktop. We still have to buy a new wall oven, since the old one is a '70s Harvest Gold 27" oven.

We also still need to put the backsplash on, but I have purchased the tile. It is 3 x 6 white tiles. We also have a nice tile purchase from the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel that we are planning to use as the centerpiece behind the cooktop backsplash area.

As an accent we are also thinking of adding two horizontal strips of 1" muted brown glass tile about halfway up the backsplash.

We still have some work to do but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.